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I've watched Grant's video of forging tongs on his electric screw press and I think the induction unit would give a propane forge a run for the money on speed. Even though you can load 10 or more pieces in a gas forge, the overall takt time is short because he is taking a hot piece out of the coils as soon as he's finished forging; hot stock waiting to be forged is wasted energy. Regardless, it would be an interesting race...

I think you would eventually run into duty cycle problems with the induction if you ran it flat out all day with no breaks.

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I'd assume that a Louisiana bug zapper runs off of 3phase 440 VAC; last time I was even close to there was south east Texas and I remember being warned that when you shot down a mosquito with the 12 gauge you needed to record the FAA number on it and provide it to the Game Warden...

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Cannot be beat if the machine has enough power to heat the next part fast enough that it's ready when you finish the previous one. And I really hate having 10 parts in the fire when anything interrupts the cycle, like a loose bolt or the phone.

I've watched Grant's video of forging tongs on his electric screw press and I think the induction unit would give a propane forge a run for the money on speed. Even though you can load 10 or more pieces in a gas forge, the overall takt time is short because he is taking a hot piece out of the coils as soon as he's finished forging; hot stock waiting to be forged is wasted energy. Regardless, it would be an interesting race...

I thought about this on my way to work this morning.

Wouldn't ten pieces in a forge lead to excess scaling? One advantage of induction in a production environment is that it doesn't spend much excess time at a scaling temperature. Of course the down side is that they're in an environment that hasn't been depleted of oxygen....

But it seems to be a workflow issue to me. Watching Grant's videos, he has a process set up that involves a constant flow of material from stack to induction coil, to forge station, to stack. If you had a different process, your efficiencies vary.

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Correct me if I am wrong please. Lets say you are making a small stylish widget (ssw) and it takes 10 seconds to remove it from the forge, hit it a few times to make the bar into ssw and set it aside. Remember this is an example. Now in the gas forge that is already up to temp you put a piece of bar in that will be made into your high selling ssw and start the stopwatch........... when it reaches forging temp stop the clock and read what the number is and... one minute fourty seconds. Or 100 seconds, Now that you knot the time it take to cycle one ssw's bar stock through the forge and how long it take to make your ssw under the hammer do the simple math to tell you how many bars to load into the forge. Of course if you fill the forge with cold metal it will change the heat time but remember this an an EXAMPLE so try to keep the nitpick technical comments to a minimum. The math tells me to put ten bars in the forge because as they are being worked it take exactly the amount of time to heat up as it does to be ready for it. That means there is no excessive soak time, the instant the piece is up to temp it is removed and formed into the valuable ssw the world is demanding. With a proper burning forge with a bit of dragon breath the scale should be minimal. Remember it comes out the instant it is hot. At the same time one is removed a new one is put in its place to be ready to form in one minute fourty. Anything that happens with the grain it hat time is likely to be negated by the forging process, grains being severely beaten into submission between hammer an anvil.
Now to the induction machine. It is a simple matter to adjust the machine to the cycle time of making you ssw which in this case is ten seconds. Remember the post earlier where nakedanvil said the machine needs to have enough power. It is the same either way once you are up and running, take part out of forge, replace with cold part, forge ssw repeat.

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r smith, your analysis is just about right. I think most smiths do a lot less math and a lot more 'looks about right' than your example, but yes, it's possible to cycle parts through the forge so that they don't sit too long. It's also possible to let the work sit in a gas forge without burning it, so, unlike a coal forge, it's not necessary to whip it out of there the second it comes up to heat.

None of which is an argument against induction, merely trying to answer a question.

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He is right I have done the math and have the experience to back it up. But you can program the machine heat a part wile you are forging. Also you can shut the thing off and pick it right back up. I see it as a very useful machine that makes many tasks easier simpler and safer. It will not replace a gas or coal forge as they both have their advantages. I have all three and I use all three. For a person making knives in their spare time its ideal other than cost. Just press a button and instant heat. But if you are textureing 100 ft of stock for a rail you need a gas forge.

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Thank you, fciron and southshore. I am not saying one is better than the other and they both certainly have advantages in certain circumstances. Just that some of the earlier posts did not make sense to me. I hope to have an induction unit in my future. I do not think it can be beat for ease of having a hot piece ready to work with no waiting.
smith out

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Grant the Blacksmith Depot doesn't have your equipment under any of the product tabs. You can see the forges listed if you put "induction forges" in the search area but there is no information and an error message comes up.

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I was wondering what is available for those poor unfortunates who have 110 V power single phase or 220 V power 2 phase? What amperage would I be drawing with either unit? I am planning my home workshop here in Brazil and so will be starting from scratch with my power source. Anyone have the schematics for an induction forge and or the name of a supplier within Brasil or at least South America?

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I was wondering what is available for those poor unfortunates who have 110 V power single phase or 220 V power 2 phase? What amperage would I be drawing with either unit? I am planning my home workshop here in Brazil and so will be starting from scratch with my power source. Anyone have the schematics for an induction forge and or the name of a supplier within Brasil or at least South America?